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Heya,

Just back from an excellent introductory workshop on laser etching and i'm wondering how to apply it to my dudesmen, and more specifically the tanks/knights/potential titan.

I'm thinking specifically doing engraving on the flats of a reaper chainsword or parts of the carapace on a reaver, but I wouldn't know about the materials to be sure I won't catch the place on fire in so doing. Has anyone experimented with this in the past and would they be willing to share the results ?

I'm already lining up pre-fab fortification designs for guardsmen heavy weapon teams and so on as munitorum stamped barricades have a certain appeal to them when mounting a heavy bolter or what have you on the corner. Anyone done similar?

I wouldn;t try it on resin, or wear a hazmat suit as the burning resin will likely give you multiple forms of cancer. The plastic will likely b the same.

While i my self have never used a laser engraver i know its possible to engrave it. im sure iv seen plenty of acrylic and such done.

If anything just have a decent vacuum extractor and a fire extinguisher ready.

i have not seen anything on resin though. if anything you should try and get some scraps and test it out.

Acrylic is much different from the Plastic used in Miniatures.

Laser etching the distinctly soft plastic (as compared to acrylics) as well as resin is going to more often than not result in melting before much actual etching takes place.

I tried it many, many years ago (early 2000's plastic) using a laser engraver in a trophy shop. It came out a pretty cruddy mess, without the type of definition that you'd hope for. Part of the problem is that unlike wood (which burns) or metal (which discolors), plastic melts. Of course, technology has changed, and who knows, maybe with better settings and newer lasers now, it's possible.

Using a regular routing table CNC programmed gives ok results, especially if it's a device like a micro mill. But the problem is that the details that we want to engrave are often extremely fine, exceeding what's possible with most equipment. And even when it is possible, aligning it all is often problematic with many pieces.

Test it out on a piece of sprue first. When in doubt, use the sprue.

There are a few plastics commercial laser cutter don't like to cut due the production of toxic and or corrosive gasses or other unwanted side effects. They have done a ton of research on this topic.

I have no idea what Gw "plastic" is really made of but it will not be easy to work with if it is polystyrene.

http://www.laserscript.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=590
http://atxhackerspace.org/wiki/Laser_Cutter_Materials

Games Workshop is High Impact Polystyrene afaik.

instead of a laser, I have found repeated drilling in a line and then cleaning it out would be a way to get a moderately close effect, but without the likelihood of poisoning, asphyxiation, and just turning it into a puddle of molten toxic goop.